A variety of networks involve network nodes that communicate with one another via a common node. Such network nodes may be used, for example, in motor vehicles, in aerotechnics and aerospace engineering, in industrial automation (for example, sensor systems) and domestic automation (e.g., lighting technology, alarm systems, central heating systems, climatic control, etc.).
In such a network for motor technology, for example, the TTP protocol (TTP=Time-Triggered Protocol) from the Journal “Elektronik” No. 14, 1999, pp. 36 to 43 (Dr. Stefan Polenda, Georg Kroiss: “TTP: “Drive by Wire” in greifbarer Nähe”) may be used. This protocol enables a reliable data transmission and may therefore also be used in networks for safety-relevant devices (for example brakes). In the article mentioned above, a bus system is mentioned as a network structure.
However, with various such approaches, data communications cannot be guaranteed. For instance, a situation involving a simultaneous access may occur both in the event of an error and during the start of the system, i.e., in a transition phase, when a fixed time window is not predefined at one and the same time for all the nodes.